Magazine for breech-loading fire-arms



No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

L. F. BRUCE. MAGAZINE FOB. BREEOH LOADING FIRE ARMS. A No.- 439,833. Patented Nov. 4, 1890.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

LI. BRUCE. MAGAZINE FOR BREEGH LOADING FIRE ARMS.

No. 439,833. Patented Nov. 4, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT Fries.

LUOIEN F. BRUCE, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

MAGAZINE FOR BREECH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 439,833, dated November 4, 1890. Application filed December 6,1889. Serial No. 332,804- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that. I, LUCIEN F. BRUCE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Spring field, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Magazines for Breech- Loading Fire-Arms, of which the followingis a specification.

This invention relates to that class of magazines forfire-arms called pocket-magazines, the object being to provide an improved pivoted magazine for said arms; and the invention relates particularly to improved means for securing the proper movement of the cartridges one by one from the magazine, irrespective of the positions of the rims thereof relative to each other, to an improved cartridge elevating spring, and to improved means for locking the magazine in an upward or operative position.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, Figure l is a perspective view of the guard-frame of a fire-arm and a portion of the latter under the receiver thereof, and a 7 magazine embodying my improvements, said figure showing, also, a cartridge-box and several cartridges in the position in which they are held when the magazine is charged. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the parts of the arm illustrated in Fig. 1, showing a vertical section of the magazine and several cartridges therein. Fig. 3 is a section of the upper portion and of the rear edge of the magazine on line 3 3, Fig. 2. Fig. at is a side view of the interior of a part of one of the side walls of the magazine, showing thereon one of the cartridge stops. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the forward end of the guardframe of the arm and of that portion of the magazine containing means for locking one end thereof to said guard-frame. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of the magazine, showing the position of its internal mechanism when containing no cartridges. Fig. 7-is a side view of the magazine-spring when compressed. Fig. 8 is a perspective view of said spring when fully distended. Fig. 9 is an edge and an end view of a removable leaf of the spring with its attached spring-arms. Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the cartridgetable of the magazine.

In the drawings, A indicates the guardframe of a fire-arm, which in practice is secured on the under side of the arm underthe receiver thereof and'has a slot through it, as shown, in which, as well as in a slot through the receiver in the rear of the barrel, the magazineet has an operative position, as shown in Fig. 2. The guard e, at the rear end of said frame A, has its forward edge slotted, as shown, to permit the magazine to swing downwardly and rearwardly, one corner thereof entering said slot, as shown in Fig. 1, the magazine being pivoted to the guard-frame at 5, whereby it is permitted to swing from the position it occupies when the gun is using cart-ridges therefrom to that shown in Fig. 1, which is the position the magazine takes when swung downward to be loaded, as illustrated in Fig. 1. v

The said magazine 4: is constructed of sub stantially the form shown in the drawings, preferably of sheet-steelthat is to say, of sufficient width between its inner walls to receive cartridges in the positions shown in Fig. 2, of proper length to accommodate said cartridges and sufficient height when in operative position in the arm to bring the upper cartridge of the group therein (the cartridges being indicated by 3) substantially on a line with the bore of the barrel.

Said magazine is provided with a springB in its interior, which has a lifting-power under a cart-ridgetable 8, on which the lower one of the group of cartridges in the magazine rests, the force of said spring B being sufficient to move the entire charge of the magazine upward as often as the upper cartridge thereof may be carried therefrom into the barrel of the arm. The upper cartridge of the charge in the mazagine is prevented from being lifted too high by the engagement therewith of two inturned lips 12 on the upper edges of the walls of the magazine, as shown in Fig. 3 and in full and dotted lines in Fig. 2, said upper cartridges being free to be moved endwise from under said lips 12 when the bolt of the gun shall strike it to carry it into the barrel thereof. The said table 8, on which the cartridges in the magazine are held, is clearly illustrated in Fig. 10,

and has a laterally-projecting trunnion 17 on each edge, on each of which is secured loosely (preferably by riveting) a pending plate 18,

and said trunnions are free to swing in said plates when the table is in the magazine and has an operative relation to the cam-plates 10 on the inner opposite sides of the magazine. Under the latter condition of parts said plates 18 are each brought into longitudinal grooves 16 in said cam-plates, as shown in Figs. 2 and 6, whereby the table 8 is prevented from moving endwise, but is free to swing on its said trunnions to permit it to take more or less inclined positions (as shown in Figs. 2 and 6) to accommodate itself to the movement of the cartridges. The said plates constitute movable or sliding bearings for the support and guidance of said table, for they slide up and down in said grooves 16, moving with the table when the magazine is being discharged and when it is loaded, and the table is always free to swing to different inclines, as aforesaid, thereby avoiding any inconvenient friction between the inner sides of the magazine and the edges of the table. Thesaid spring B is of a novel construction, and is expressly adapted to the requirements of a magazine of the class herein described and shown, since it is hardly possible that it can be broken by any legitimate usage that it may be subjected to in the magazine, and its tension or resistance when compressed from its distended position shown in Fig. 6 to that shown in Fig. 2 or Fig. 7 is substantially equal. and hence its action in the magazine to lift the cartridges is very uniform. Said spring B consists of the following-named members, all constructed, preferably, from spring-steel. The base-strip 19 of said spring is made of a proper width and length to be admitted into the magazine, and has an arm 20 on each edge for engagement with the said grooves 16 in the plates 10 on the inner walls of the magazine, whereby endwise movement thereof is prevented and the spring is retained in proper position. Said base strip or leaf has normally about the semi-elliptic or curved form shown in Fig. 8, and has hinged to its ends two metallic levers 21 and 22, which are substantially alike and are made about one-half as wide for a certain distance between their ends as they are at the latter, in order that they may be crossed, as shown, and not possess when so arranged a combined width exceeding that of the said curved base-leaf 19. Said manner of constructing said levers provides the wide free ends yy thereof on which said table Sis held, and said ends, which interlock when the spring is fully elongated, as shown in Fig. 8, constitute stops to arrest the movement of said levers when they are thrown upward. The lever 21 of the spring extends toward the outer end of the table 8, and that end of the table occupies, normally, a higher position than its rear end, and therefore the end f of said lever 21, on which the outer end of said table rests, is made longer beyond the interlocking points of said levers than that of the lever 22. A second or superposed spring leaf or strip 23, of substantially the same curve or semi-elliptical shape as said base-leaf 19, is placed on or over said base-leaf before the levers 21 and 22 are interlocked, and its ends engage under the curve hinge parts 24 at the ends thereof, as shown, and said leaf 23 is held in that position by a slight pressure of the levers 21 and 22 against the ends of two curved springs 25, which are riveted or otherwise rigidly attached by their opposite ends to said superposed leaf 23, said levers when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 8 bearing with more or less force against the free ends of said springs 24. The said interlocking feature of said levers 21 and 22 is also of utility when the spring is manipulated to place it in the magazine and to remove it therefrom, for thereby the parts are all retained in the relative positions shown in Fig. 8. The spring B thus consists of an elliptic spring consisting of said curved leaves 19 and 23, supplemented by the springs 25, fixed on said superposed leaf 23, and the levers 21 and 22, hinged to said leaf 19 and having an engagement with the free end of said supplementary springs 24. Fig. 6 shows the said springin its normal position in the uncharged magazine, the engagement of the trunnion-bearings of the table 8 and the upper ends of grooves 16 in plates 10 causing the partial depression of the spring there shown, and the spring then exerts force enough against said table to hold it in place. Fig. 2 shows the position of said spring parts in the magazine when the latter is partly charged, (lacking one cartridge,) and Fig. 7 shows the said spring in an abnormallycompressed position or with its parts folded more closely against each other than they are in practical use. By observing the positions of the said spring parts in the above-referredto figures it will be seen that a compressing force applied to the ends of the levers thereof is communicated, first, to the free ends of the springs 25; secondly, to the upper leaf 23, and, thirdly, to the base-leaf 19 at the ends thereof. Thus the main spring force is the resultant effect of three spring elements acting successively and in combination and in such manner that their resistance is nearly uniform; and another practical result of said construction is that, owing to its detached elements, as described, it is found that its liability to become broken in use is obviated, and this defect in magazine-springs heretofore made is a very serious one, for thereby many guns become disabled in service, so far as the use of the magazine is concerned.

In magazines of the description herein shown as heretofore constructed it has been necessary to use great precaution in loading the same with cartridges in order to insure a certain position of the rims of the cartridges relative to each other when in the magazine, to the end that the rim of the cartridge which is moved by the bolt out of the magazine shall not engage behind the rim of the cartridge aces, r r a.

next under it, for such engagement of one rim with another would result in the movement of two cartridges or more at the same time out of the magazine and the temporary disabling of the arm, and therefore as heretofore practiced the rim of each cartridge above the lower one in the magazine has beep placed forward of the other in regular succession, so that each one may b9 moved outof the magazine without engaging with the rim of the one next under it. The necessity, however, of so placing cartridges in loading the'magazine'demands the exercise of great care, and much more,in fact, thanitis practicable to employ when the person loading the magazine may be in great haste or in a position of danger.

To obviate the inconveniences above referred to in loading said magazines, and to provide such a construction thereof as obviates the necessity of using so much care in loading, and to provide for the delivery of the cartridges therefrom one after the other in regular succession, irrespective of the relative positions of the rims of the cartridges therein, whether the upper one of the group has its rim forward of or back of the next one below it, the said magazine is constructed as follows:

The magazine 4 may have its charge of cartridges placed therein one by one, if need be; but the preferable way of loading it is to place the entire number of cartridges required for a charge for the magazine-say five, more or less--in a paper box 13, (seeFig. 1,) which is held in the position indicated in said figure when the magazine shall have been swung downward to the position there shown. When said box 13 is presented at the open edge of the magazine, as shown, the'rims of the cartridges are brought to the rear edge of the said cam-plates 10, said plates being fixed on the opposite inner walls of the magazine, as shown in Fig. 3, one of said plates being shown in side elevation in Fig. 2, and by engagement with the rear edges of said cam -plates .and by the engagement at the same time of the borders of the open end of said cartridgebox with the forward edges of said cam-plates 10 said cartridges when the box is forced into the magazine are drawn from the box, and the box likewise has a movement in the opposite direction, which opposite movements of cartridges and box are produced by forcing the same against the tapering edges of said cam-plates, and the charge of cartridges under which the table 8 lies above the spring B is held in the magazine against the action of said spring by the aforesaid inturned two lips 12 on the upper edges of the sides of the magazine, as shown in Fig. 3, the upper cartridge being thus held in the above-described position substantially in a line with the bore of the barrel of the arm.

The means above referred to in the magazine 4, which provide for the delivery of the cartridges therefrom one after the other in described.

regnlarsuccession, irrespective of the relative position of the rims of the cartridges therein,

consist of two cartridge steps or projections 14 on the inner opposite sides of the walls of the magazine, which stops are shown in Fig. 3 in rear edge view, in side elevation in Fig. 4, and in dotted lines in Fig. 2. The said stops are shown in the drawings as consisting of metal pieces riveted orotherwise suitably secured to the inner sides of the magazine; but said stops may, if preferred, consist-of projections of like or similar'form made on said inner sides of the magazine by in'dent- 8o ing the outer surface of said sides, whereby said stop forms would be, so to speak, thrown up on said inner walls.

The stops 14 have at the rear an angle 14*,

and below this angle there is an inclined side n. The angle 14* is so near the top of the magazine that the flange of the second cartridge from the top will engage the stop below this angle, while the upper cartridge will lie above said in moving forward. The angle 14 thus serves as a divider or selector. If the flange of the top cartridge is in front of the flange of the cartridge below it, the top cartridge can be moved forward toward or into the bore of the gun without moving the cartridge below i t; but if the flange of the top cartridge be behind that of the next lower one the movement of the top cartridge toward the chamber of the gun would naturally tend to' move the car- 100. .tridge below it in the same direction; but the stop 14 prevents such movement. Consequently the flange of the second cartridge will bemoved obliquely downward along the incline n until the flange of the top cartridge rides over it, when the spring will tend to lift the cartridge up again along the incline n, and as soon as the top cartridge is removed the next one will rise with ,its flange in the rear of stop 14, its rimbeing brought to the position of the rim indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, and the cartri ges are-one by one so acted upon until the charge in the magazine is exhausted. If the cartridges be placed in the magazine with the rims of each one in advance of the other from the lower one u pward, they will move one by one regularly out of the magazine by the action of the bolt of the arm, as aforesaid; but if the cartridges be misplaced in the magazine, as above described, the rims of the cartridges overlapping those thereunder, the action of thestops 14 prevents any derangement or inconvenience of the magazine-charge in boring the arm, as above The use of pocket-magazines of the class herein described, which are pivoted by one. edge, as shown, for military or other arms requires that the devices for securing the magazine in an upward or operative position, as shown in Fig. 2, should be of simple and eflective construction, and that the outer portions thereof, which are handled or manipulated to disconnect the forward edge of the angle in position to ride over it 90 magazine from the part of the arm in which the magazine is pivoted, should not project outwardly beyond the general surface of the magazine-containing part of the arm, and to this end improved catch devices between the swinging part of the magazine and the arm are employed, which consist of a bifurcated spring 7, which is secured, as shown in the drawings, to the inner side of the lower edge h of the magazine by a screwat or near the extreme end of said spring, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, said spring being shown in section in said last-named figure, its bifurcated ends a: at: extending more or less beyond the forward edge of the magazine and having normally a separated position, as shown in Fig. 1. Just back of said ends a: a: of the spring 7 are two thumb-piece lateral projections z, and byfapplying the thumb and finger against the ends of said two projections the ends a: of the spring are made to approach each other, and by letting goof said projections said ends'spring apart.

The forward endlo f the guard-frame A is slotted, thereby forming an opening K ,there-.

in and two pending teeth 0 0 thereon, and in the inner sides], of said teeth are formed catch-notches 6,'and the inner opposite sides,

of said teeth are snfiicientlyseparated to permit the ends a: wfof the springs 7 to enter between them when the magazine is swung to the position shown in Fig. 2, thereby causing said spring ends to be more or less pressed toward each other and permitted to pass between said teeth through the opening K, and finally become lodged in the notches 6 in the guard-frame in the positions shown in Fig. 5, thereby firmly locking the forward edge of the magazine to said frame.

In practice the outer ends of the thumb projections a on the springs 7 are made flush with or not projecting beyond the planerof the outer adjoining surface of the guardframe A, next to said thumb-pieces, when the magazine is locked in an upward position in the frame, in order that said spring parts cannot be driven inward by any blow or con-' tact with anything against the arm at that point, whereby the magazine maybe accidentally unlocked and allowed to swing downward, as in Fig. 1.

What I claim as my invention is- 1. In a magazine for fire-arms of the class described, cartridge-retaining projections onv the inner opposite walls thereof, with which the up-moving cartridges may engage and become temporarily held against endwise movement, substantially as and for thepun' pose set forth.

2. In combination, a pivoted pocket-magazine for fire-arm's, substantially as described, a bifurcated spring attached to the lower end of said magazine, having laterally-springing ends thereon, and anadjoining part of the arm having notches therein, substantially as described, to receive said spring ends, sub

stantially as set forth.

3, In combig'ation with the guard-frame of a firearm, ha 1 tiallyas described, to receive the ends, of a magazine-spring, a magazine pivoted in said frame, a bifurcated spring on said magazine, having. spring ends to engage with said ng notches therein, substannotches, andthumb-pieces 'on said spring ends,who'se ends are in substantially the same planeastheadjoining surface of said frame, substantially as set forth.

,ln' apocket-magazine for fire-arms,-a cartridgeFeIevating spring consisting of the followingr'nembers: an elliptic spring consisting of. an upper and a lower leaf, supplemental springs, substantially as described, fixed by one end on said upper leaf, and a pair of levers hinged to said lower leaf and crossing each other and engaging with the free ends of said supplemental springs, combined and operating substantially as set forth.

5. In a pocket-magazine, for fire-arms, a cartridge-elevating spring comprising an e1- liptic spring consisting of detached upper and lower leaves, said lower leaf having lateral arms for engagement with the inner walls of the magazine, 'supplementalsprings, substantially as described,'fixed by one end to said upper leaf, and a pair of levers hinged to said lower leaf and crossing each other and engaging with the free ends of said supplemental springs, combined and operating substantially as set forth.

6. In a pocket-magazine for fire-arms, a cartridge-elevating spring consisting of the following members: an elliptic spring consisting of an upper and a lowerleaf, supplemental springs, substantially as described, fixed by one end on said upper leaf, and a pair of levers hinged to said lower leaf and crossing each other and. engaging with the free ends of said supplemental springs, combined with a cartridge-table resting on said spring, substantially as set forth. LUCIEN F. BRUCE. Witnesses:

WM. S. BELLOWS,

G. M. CHAMBERLAIN.

too 

